Josh Caygill ends Audi Sport TT Cup season P10 in championshipCaygill satisfied with driving progression throughout 2016
Josh Caygill ended the second season of Audi Sport TT Cup action inside the coveted top 10 of the championship standings, despite a frustrating final event of the season at Hockenheim over the weekend, 15th/16th October.
Hitting back strongly from a problematic test session, where the balance of his Audi was incorrectly set, the 27-year-old went on to qualify inside the top 10 for rounds 13 and 14 at the German track. He actually had pace good enough for the top five, but lost a significant amount of time to slower cars on his best laps.
In the races, an unfortunate penalty in Saturday’s contest – a result of officials declaring his car was marginally out of position at the start – prevented a healthy finish and on Sunday, a race originally delayed due to fog, Josh missed out on a deserved result after his car’s steering was damaged when he received contact while battling in the top eight.
“To be fair, the way this weekend has gone has pretty much summed up the year for us”, said a somewhat vexed Josh, “We struggled in practice, checked the set-up and found the front-left wheel and rear-right wheel had too much tow-in, the opposite corners had too much tow-out. The balance was all wrong and explained why I was struggling with understeer and oversteer.
“We sorted it for qualifying and we had good pace there, I should have probably been P5 on the race one grid but lost six tenths in the last sector to a slower driver – the same thing happened on my second best lap as well. The penalty in race one was a bit harsh, they said I had a wheel slightly over the grid box, and race two was going well until the contact. As I say, it summed up our year!”
Josh added: “It’s not been the year we wanted in terms of the results, but I’m happy with the improvement I’ve shown in my driving and overall pace. I have to say a huge thank you to all of my fantastic sponsors, my family, manager Tim Sugden and everyone who made the season possible.”
Launching away from the line well in Saturday afternoon’s contest, the Netherton racer held his top 10 position into Turn One and pressured the pack ahead throughout the opening tour – ending lap one just 0.3 seconds behind the Audi of Milan Dontje.
Intensifying his challenge for ninth place on lap three, Josh remained just a few tenths of a second behind his rival and he continued to pile significant pressure onto Dontje. On lap five he almost got fully alongside into the stadium section, but had to tuck back into 10th place again.
At the halfway point of the race the order remained the same, Josh still bottled up behind Dontje, but soon after the race took a frustrating turn for the Briton when officials black flagged his car after he mistakenly didn’t observe a drive-through penalty for being out of position at the start. Even so, he was classified in 18th position to secure a handful of points.
“I saw a black and white flag shown on the start/finish straight but couldn’t work out what it was for, then it was withdrawn so I didn’t think any further of it – and then they black flagged me”, explained Josh, “It transpired they thought I had a wheel over the grid box at the start, so that was that.”
Sunday’s race was originally scheduled to begin the day’s track schedule but the encounter was delayed by low-hanging fog. Eventually rescheduled almost nine hours later, when the action began Josh again started well from the fifth row and maintained position initially.
Moving into ninth mid-lap as six or seven cars all jostled outside the lead quartet, prior to the appearance of the Safety Car on lap two the Briton held an improved eighth place and when the action re-started on the fourth tour he instantly tried to challenge for seventh.
Running well in eighth and swarming all over the group ahead, as he turned into the right-hander at Turn 10 the left front corner of his Audi was tagged. Becoming entangled with the car of Gosia Rdest, and running off the circuit as a result, the damage to his steering meant certain retirement.
Final 2016 Audi Sport TT Cup Driver Standings:10th Josh Caygill, 117pts
